Friday, July 30, 2010

Eating Cleaner Fruit, Veggies and Meat


With the recent lettuce scare and new research that links ADHS in kids to pesticide ingestion, we all might want to take another look at what we're ingesting along with our food.

I recently met Mareya Ibrahim at a conference. Mareya's daughter is a fan of Spatulatta and heard that one of our hosts, Olivia Gerasole had allergies and asthma.

Mareya was kind enough to send a starter kit of Eat Cleaner products for all of us to try with the hope that it might alleviate Livvy's symptoms.

The box contained several Eat Cleaner Fruit and Vegetable wipes, Eat Cleaner Fruit and Vegetable Wash and Eat Cleaner Seafood and Poultry Wash.

Apples are the most pesticide laden fruit. Pesticide-free apples are more likely than not to be dimpled with bug bites. So to produce a nice, smooth skinned fruit, apples are sprayed repeated as they mature.

I love to crunch a crisp apple skin and I'll be the first to admit that more likely than not, I give apples a cursory rinse under cold running water before chomping down. That probably doesn't do a thing to unlock the pesticides caught in the wax on your average store-bought apple.

So I was happy to try out the Eat Cleaner Fruit and Vegetable wipes. Individually packaged, I used the wipe on a Gala apple from my refrigerator and found I could actually feel the difference. The waxy layer was gone. The ingredient list is all natural so you can eat the fruit immediately after using the wipe, which makes it great for lunch boxes. I could smell the tiniest trace of the mixture on the fruit with my first bite though it did not add any flavor.

The Seafood and Poultry Wash comes in an easy to use spray bottle. I sprayed skinless chicken breasts, waited and then ran them under water. The wash immediately took away the slimy feeling that I associate with raw chicken. I couldn't help thinking about all the bacteria on skin and flesh that meat products can pick during the packaging process. Here was a way to make sure that all that was rinsed down the drain leaving no favor or aroma.

Next, I tried the Fruit and Vegetable Wash on broccoli and lettuce, spraying them then waiting a minute before rinsing. There wasn't any noticeable difference to report, though I felt, based on how the other two products worked, that any pesticides were loosened by the wash and rinsed away. And there's also the reality of how many sets of hands our vegetables pass through on the way to our kitchens. This is especially important to consider when it's vegetables like lettuce that we eat raw.

It is sobering to think that because my budget doesn't always allow me to purchase organically grown fruits and veggies, I may be getting multiple servings of pesticides in my daily diet. Eat Cleaner at around $4 per bottle on-line at QVC.com is a very cost effective alternative for me.